Cryn The Dark Reflection is an RPG role playing game, styled after classics such as Final Fantasy and Zelda. Lead Cryn through his journey into hell with his brother Beorne.

As the son of an dying king, you know that one day soon you will have great power. However, this power is shared between you and your brother.. and things aren't always as they seem.

United by a common bond, you assume the role of the younger brother, Cryn, as he finds himself caught in an unknown path along with his older brother, Beorne.

Cryn features the following:
- Bird's eye view of over-world.
- Weather effects including sun, rain, fog, and more.
- More than 50 different random monster encounters and pre-set boss encounters.
- Turn-based battle system using physical attacks, offensive, and defensive magic.
- More than 15 different spells.
- Spell evolution occurring at level 10+.
- Unique monster spells and NPC attacks.
- Some NPC characters can be controlled by user during battle.
- Switch between multiple view points in game and control different character missions.
- Game may be saved at any time to restore from last save point.

This is a very entertaining game, one I'd gladly come back to, which says a lot. It has its problems, but the well-constructed atmosphere makes up for them.

The gameplay is fairly standard for the one PC RPG. You wander around, fighting monsters, not straying too far from the recovery zone (in this case, a fountain). Diligence beats daring every time, but then again, diligence doesn't have nearly as much fun. A fair range of spells, including some effect spells (i.e., it's not all about damage) keeps tedium from setting in.

Where this game really shines is, as said, in creating atmosphere. Strong music, sound effects (love the lightning) and graphics, not to mention your very creepy brother always hanging around, really create a sense of foreboding. I haven't played it all the way through yet (I'm in the ancient tree), but I do get the sense something sinister is afoot.

The story is good enough for me to be eager to find out how it all turns out.

The battle backgrounds are very pretty, and the special effects, particularly the rain and falling leaves, are quite nice and very effective at providing that extra layer of visual distraction.

The game's not perfect, though. The combat system is a little simple, and occasionally ill-balanced, creating situations from which there is no escape and to which there is no counter (thankfully there's a save-anywhere feature, though). Also, the graphics, while brilliant in spots, could use some work in others: the tiled effect was just a little too pronounced at parts, and there were a number of minor technical glitches.All in all a good game, very recommended.

The engine is tile based, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but in this case, it's all too obvious. There has been little if any work on "eliminating the grid", and the tiles themselves are not very pretty. It's all even more obvious, as the npcs and the player can only move pixel*tile (eg. the actual movement is tile per tile, but there's a smooth animation of the npc/player moving from one tile to another).

The battle engine is very simplistic and like in all too many games, a thing you have to get by, rather than enjoy. The graphics here in the battle engine is made up of very beautiful backgrounds with badly rendered monsters on top, resulting in a incoherent... mess. Also the npcs and player seems to be blurred, and lacks any of the detail that might have made it interesting.

The game is not in any way technically impressing, and nothing is done to hide this. The engine itself limits the gameplay and ruins the urge to follow this game long enough to get into the story. On top of it, there is no action, which could have made up for some of this.

I really don't understand how the author can charge $13 for the full game... unless of course... it contains some sort of virus.. which can only be cured with the full game! oh no! ... :P